Iraq and Lebanon are scheduled to sign a free trade agreement next month in Beirut in the framework of further enhancing trade relations between the two countries, a visiting Lebanese official said in Baghdad on Wednesday.
"Lebanon and Iraq have witnessed quick and concrete development in all fields," Jack al-Saraf, chairman of the Lebanese Industrialists Union, told the state-run
Iraq TV while attending a Lebanese Products Exhibition held in the Baghdad International Fair, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Lebanon's trade volume with Iraq stands at approximately 840 million U.S. dollars under the United Nations oil-for-food program, which has been in effect since 1996 and allows the sanctions-hit country to sell oil and use part of the revenues to buy food, medicine and other essential products for its 22 million people.
Iraq, which has been under U.N. sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, has so far sealed free trade agreements with such countries as Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen, the UAE and Algeria. The deals are desired for eventually canceling import or export tariffs among Arab countries and establishing a common Arab market.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, currently visiting Sudan, on Tuesday signed a free trade agreement with his Sudanese counterpart Ali Osman Taha. (Albawaba.com)
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